Portrait of Paul Dirac
Date
1939
Sitter
Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (1902 - 1984, British) , Theoretical physicist
Creator
Clara Ewald (1859 - 1948, German) , Painter
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
height (painting): 765mm
width (painting): 563mm
width (painting): 563mm
Subject
Description
Half-length portrait of Paul Dirac, facing the viewer directly, with arms folded. Dirac’s right hand is visible, the index finger raised slightly. The sitter wears a blue suit jacket over a blue jumper and tie and a white shirt.
Paul Dirac was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1930.
Paul Dirac was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1930.
Transcription
C.Ewald II 1939
PAUL DIRAC F.R.S. 1902-1984 presented by Mrs Ella Ewald
PAUL DIRAC F.R.S. 1902-1984 presented by Mrs Ella Ewald
Object history
Presented by Mrs Ella.Ewald, 1988.
The circumstances behind the painting of this work are noted in correspondence on its donation, facilitated by Richard H. Dalitz FRS. “This portrait was painted by Mrs Clara Ewald at Cambridge; she begun work on it at the end of 1938 and completed it there in February 1939. After her death in 1948, the portrait went to her only child, Professor P.P.Ewald FRS....Clara Ewald painted portraits of a number of notable people...Max von Laue, Rupert Brooke and Edna Ferber, among others. In her later years, she lived with her son Paul Peter Ewald and his family, who settled in Belfast in August 1939, when he took up a readership at the Queen’s University. She died at Belfast in 1948. Mrs Ella Ewald, the wife of the late Professor Paul Peter Ewald, has been the owner of the portrait since the death of her husband in 1985”. [Notes by Richard Dalitz attached to a letter, R.H.Dalitz to Sir George Porter, 23 August 1988, Royal Society provenance file].
Dalitz championed the portrait and its subject: “I am writing to urge that the Royal Society should offer to accept and to house this portrait of P.A.M. Dirac. Apart from a bust, the Society holds very little about Dirac, without a doubt the greatest British theoretical physicist of the 20th century.” [Letter, R.H.Dalitz to Sir Roger Elliott, 8 July 1988, Royal Society provenance file].
The circumstances behind the painting of this work are noted in correspondence on its donation, facilitated by Richard H. Dalitz FRS. “This portrait was painted by Mrs Clara Ewald at Cambridge; she begun work on it at the end of 1938 and completed it there in February 1939. After her death in 1948, the portrait went to her only child, Professor P.P.Ewald FRS....Clara Ewald painted portraits of a number of notable people...Max von Laue, Rupert Brooke and Edna Ferber, among others. In her later years, she lived with her son Paul Peter Ewald and his family, who settled in Belfast in August 1939, when he took up a readership at the Queen’s University. She died at Belfast in 1948. Mrs Ella Ewald, the wife of the late Professor Paul Peter Ewald, has been the owner of the portrait since the death of her husband in 1985”. [Notes by Richard Dalitz attached to a letter, R.H.Dalitz to Sir George Porter, 23 August 1988, Royal Society provenance file].
Dalitz championed the portrait and its subject: “I am writing to urge that the Royal Society should offer to accept and to house this portrait of P.A.M. Dirac. Apart from a bust, the Society holds very little about Dirac, without a doubt the greatest British theoretical physicist of the 20th century.” [Letter, R.H.Dalitz to Sir Roger Elliott, 8 July 1988, Royal Society provenance file].
Associated place